The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court on July 2 confirmed the National Bank’s position that the state’s entry into PrivatBank’s capital (Kyiv) is not essential grounds for termination of mortgage contracts concluded with property guarantors controlled by Ihor Kolomoisky, the NBU said in a press release on Thursday evening.
“The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeal filed by PrJSC Erlan (TM Biola), controlled by Ihor Kolomoisky, which demanded the termination of the mortgage contract concluded with the National Bank and thus tried to avoid fulfilling its obligations under them,” the report said.
According to him, Erlan provided the National Bank with collateral property worth Hr 3 billion as a guarantee for a refinancing loan provided to the bank before its nationalization. The plaintiff believed that as a result of the state’s entry into PrivatBank’s capital, there was a significant change in the circumstances when the creditor (the National Bank) and the debtor (PrivatBank) merged into one.
According to the NBU, the importance of this decision lies in the fact that the Supreme Court has formed judicial practice for this category of cases, since now the property guarantors of PrivatBank refinancing loans are trying to terminate mortgage contracts in courts, citing a significant change in circumstances.
“In total, the courts of first and appeal instances have already taken more than 50 court decisions in favor of the National Bank, which entered into legal force. However, the decision of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of July 2 is the first in this category of cases accepted in favor of the NBU by a higher court and is not subject to appeal,” the head of the claims department of the NBU legal department Viktor Hryhorchuk said.
The National Bank recalls that in 2015, Kolomoisky, who at that time was co-owner of PrivatBank, entered into a guarantee agreement with the NBU to ensure repayment of five refinancing loans received by PrivatBank for the period 2008-2014. It signed a guarantee agreement with the NBU and in fact assumed personal obligations to pay off the bank’s debt to the National Bank, which today amounts to Hr 9.2 billion. “Kolomoisky has not fulfilled any of these obligations to the National Bank,” the NBU said.
In 2018, the National Bank filed four lawsuits in the Economic Court of Dnipropetrovsk region and a lawsuit in the Court of First Instance of the Republic and Canton of Geneva (Switzerland) against Kolomoisky in order to recover this debt. The Supreme Court on March 19, 2019, granted the cassation complaints of the NBU, canceling the decisions of the lower courts on the return of the claims of the National Bank. As a result, the Economic Court of Dnipropetrovsk region opened proceedings on the case for recovering funds from Kolomoisky.
